I used to be a huge fan of Launchy which is a free cross-platform utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. In my pursuit to always keep my hands on the keyboard it was awesome. However, it lacked some features that would help me with another goal, the no icon desktop.

The one feature that started me down this path was the desire to empty the recycle bin. Launchy has many great features but it didn’t have many system commands, where Executor had many.

turn off the monitor (note only if system/hardware support it). Default keyword is

?emptyrecyclebin

empty recycle bin

?saveclipboard

open a save clipboard to file dialog (works with text and screenshots)

control

launches the control panel

ip

write your current local IP address, or a comma separated list if machine have more than one IP address

There are many other built in commands, I just wanted to highlight the ones that really caused me to start using it.

Visual Styles

Like Launchy, Executor offers several visual styles that are achieved via skins.

Style

Example

Minimalistic

Small

Medium

Skins

The other way to customize the look and feel is to use a skin. This can be done by either downloading one from the Executor site or creating one yourself and saving it from the Executor settings dialog. I have created one that I use that is minimalistic and clean and works well with my Win7 dark theme.

I am happy to announce that we have selected the charities for the 2011 Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp. The full list of charities and non-profits can be found on the Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp site located at http://nwagivecamp.org.

We are still in need of event staff and team volunteers. If you are intersted please see the information on the site and register.

I wanted to let every one know that my good buddies over Improving Enterprises in conjunction with Microsoft are hosting another install of the AgileDotNet Conference. Improving Enterprises was named by the Dallas Business Journal and SMU to the prestigious Dallas 100 list – ranking as the 16th fastest-growing company in the Dallas area in 2009.

These guys know Agile and are one of the best if not THE best in the .NET Space.

Are you a .NET developer, database administrator or graphics designer? Do you want to spend 3 fun-filled days building applications for charities and non-profits in the Northwest Arkansas Area?

We need your help! The Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp is a weekend long event where technology professionals donate their time to provide solutions for non-profit organizations. Since it’s inception in 2007, the GiveCamp program has provided benefits to over 150 charities, with the value of developer and designer time exceeding $100,000 in services.

The Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group in partnership with the University of Arkansas is brining this unique event to Northwest Arkansas on January 14-26, 2010. This unique event offers you the chance to use the skills that you exercise every day to fill a huge need that is shared by all non-profits and charities in our area. We are not asking you to build a house or a fence. We asking you to donate your time doing that you do best, creating applications and websites.

If you are ready to sign up for this awesome event head over to http://nwagivecamp.org and sign up as a volunteer.

After discovering Windows Live Writer I vowed to never use the online editor for my post again. Recently Microsoft released the Microsoft Live Essentials 2011 which updated the Windows Live Writer by adding the Microsoft Office Ribbon style menus and toolbars which is great.

One thing that has bugged me that I have not found a fix for is that if I am using the Edit view the Title and Text area looks like it is aligned to the right and now matter what I do I cannot get it to align to the right.

As you can see in the image it looks horrible. I have installed it on several computers and they all do the same.

I don’t mind the updates to the Ribbon but this alignment issue will be what causes me to look for a different blog editing solution or go back to posting them via my blogs online editor.

If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know.

UPDATE

This seems to be due to an issue with the Theme detection in Live Writer. I posted my question on Windows Live Solution Center. I got some good ideas but the actual solution was not presented. What it did due was point me to the solution in a round about way. I searched on “Live Writer 2011 Edit with theme” and about half way down the list found this article “How to Delete a Windows Live Writer Blog Theme and Use the Default View Instead” which not only showed the same screen shot issue I was experiencing but walked me through deleting the cached version of my theme so it would use the default. Which by the way worked. So if you are having the same issue here it the solution.